CNN: First images of proposed NYC Islamic center
The group behind the proposed Islamic cultural center near New York's ground zero has released what it is calling the first official images of the center.
The website for the project, known as the Park51 Community Center, said that the "new images display an updated exterior and provide a first look into Park51’s interior and lend some insight on how we’re envisioning the project," in a post that went up Tuesday but that initially drew little notice.
You can see the images here.
Plans for the $100 million, 13-story center include a 500-seat auditorium, classrooms and conference rooms, space for social events, a 9/11 memorial, a pool and a gym.
MSNBC: NATO oil tankers attacked in Pakistan
Suspected militants attacked and set fire to at least 20 tankers carrying oil for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Monday, the third such strike inside Pakistan in as many days, police said.
The attack not far from the capital Islamabad took place on a supply line that has been stalled because of a temporary border closing imposed by Pakistani authorities to protest a NATO helicopter attack that killed three Pakistan troops last week.
BBC: Key UN climate talks set to open
Delegates are gathering in China for the final round of UN climate talks before this year's summit in Mexico, which begins at the end of November.
The meeting is expected to produce a draft negotiating text that nations will debate at the Cancun summit.
CBC: Galloway vows to sue Canadian government
Former British MP George Galloway says he will sue the Canadian government, alleging it breached his privacy rights and branded him a terrorist when it told him last year that he was not welcome in Canada.
He also announced Sunday he would take legal action against "some of the media outlets that casually repeated what were false and defamatory allegations."
"I will be seeking redress in the Canadian courts for these false accusations," Galloway told CBC News, a day after arriving in the country to resume an antiwar speaking tour.
The Daily Mail: Britain held secret war talks with U.S. general 11 months before Iraq invasion
America's most senior general flew into Britain for top secret talks on the invasion of Iraq 11 months before the attack on Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Details of the classified meeting, held at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, suggest Tony Blair’s Government was involved in detailed discussions about toppling the Iraqi dictator earlier than previously disclosed.
American General Tommy Franks flew in to the base in April 2002 to attend a summit meeting called by the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.
CBC: Commonwealth Games opening marked by yoga, rock
The Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, launched Sunday in grand style with elements that moved from ancient to modern-day.
An enthusiastic crowd of 60,000 in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi greeted hundreds of performers who opened the ceremonies with Tibetan horns, one of the oldest musical trumpets in the world with origins dating back to 1500 B.C.
Audience members included Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Indian President Pratiba Devisingh Patil and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.
The Independent: $5,000,000,000,000: The cost each year of vanishing rainforest
British scientific experts have made a major breakthrough in the fight to save the natural world from destruction, leading to an international effort to safeguard a global system worth at least $5 trillion a year to mankind.
Groundbreaking new research by a former banker, Pavan Sukhdev, to place a price tag on the worldwide network of environmental assets has triggered an international race to halt the destruction of rainforests, wetlands and coral reefs.
With experts warning that the battle to stem the loss of biodiversity is two decades behind the climate change agenda, the United Nations, the World Bank and ministers from almost every government insist no country can afford to believe it will be unaffected by the alarming rate at which species are disappearing. The Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, later this month will shift from solely ecological concerns to a hard-headed assessment of the impact on global economic security.
The UK Government is championing a new system to identify the financial value of natural resources, and the potential hit to national economies if they are lost. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) project has begun to calculate the global economic costs of biodiversity loss. Initial results paint a startling picture. The loss of biodiversity through deforestation alone will cost the global economy up to $4.5trn (£2.8trn) each year – $650 for every person on the planet, and just a fraction of the total damage being wrought by overdevelopment, intensive farming and climate change. The annual economic value of the 63 million hectares of wetland worldwide is said to total $3.4bn. In the pharmaceutical trade, up to 50 per cent of all of the $640bn market comes from genetic resources. Anti-cancer agents from marine organisms alone are valued at up to $1bn a year.
Guardian: Brazil presidential elections head for second-round
Brazil looked to have fallen short of electing its first female president last night, with Dilma Rousseff appearing to have to go into to a second round run-off.
With 90% of votes counted, Rousseff had in the region of 46%; to win outright she would have needed more than 50%. One "well-placed" source within the Rousseff camp told Reuters there was "no way" she would take the first round, although Rouseff, a former guerrilla, had the backing of the retiring president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Her rival, the Social Democrat Jose Serra, had just over 33%, while Marina Silva, an Amazon-born Green party candidate, had 20%. Silva, a former rubber-tapper who was environment minister before she quit Lula's Workers' party in 2009, has had a surge in support, particularly in the cities.
BBC: Germany marks 20 years as reunified nation
Germany has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of its reunification.
Chancellor Angela Merkel led the official celebrations, hosted by the northern city of Bremen and attended by tens of thousands of people.
Capitalist West and communist East Germany merged on 3 October 1990, nearly a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall which divided them.
Sunday is also the day Germany makes the last payment on debt stemming from reparations imposed after World War I.
Los Angeles Times: Democrats playing on opponents' words
In Kentucky, a candidate is accused of being soft on drug abuse. In Delaware, it appears it was evolution the candidate was soft on. In Florida, a House race is resurrecting debate over a 97-year-old amendment to the Constitution.
This in an election that was supposed to be all about the economy and jobs.
But in contests across the country, Republican candidates — particularly those aligned with the "tea party" movement — are finding themselves knocked off topic as they try to explain and revise a barrage of prior statements.
CNN: Verizon says it will refund some 15 million customers
Verizon Wireless said Sunday it will refund about 15 million of its customers because the company incorrectly charged them for data sessions.
Over the past few years, some 15 million Verizon customers who did not have data plans were billed for sessions on their phones that they did not initiate, said Mary Coyne, the company's deputy general counsel, in a statement.
She added the majority of data sessions involved minor exchanges caused by built-in software. Others involved opening the web, which should not have incurred charges, she said.
"We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future," Coyne said. "Our goal is to maintain our customers' trust and ensure they receive the best experience possible."
Los Angeles Times: No criminal charges planned in case of bullied 13-year-old who killed himself
More than 500 people attended a memorial service for a 13-year-old Kern County boy who took his own life after being bullied.
Seth Walsh was found unconscious after hanging himself from a tree in his family's backyard in Tehachapi on Sept. 19. According to the Bakersfield Californian, Walsh had gotten into some type of altercation with a group of teenagers at a local park before hanging himself. He died Sept. 27 at Kern Medical Center. The paper quoted family members as saying Walsh was gay but not sexually active.
Local police said they don't plan to file any criminal charges in the case. "Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears," Jeff Kermode, Tehachapi Police Chief, told KGET-TV. "They had never expected an outcome such as this."
Los Angeles Times: Eastern storm leaves 7 dead
A persistent storm that spread from the Carolinas to New York over several days ravaged parts of the East Coast, killing seven people and leaving portions of a small town of about 2,000 residents under water.
By Saturday afternoon much of the rain had stopped, but the effects were still visible, especially in the eastern North Carolina town of Windsor. Rivers and creeks have begun to recede but many roads remain closed.
"It was probably one of the largest areas of precipitation we've had in quite a while," said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Maryland.
USA Today: More cities turn to solar power for traffic signs
Growing numbers of cities and towns are turning to solar-powered road warning and school safety signs to inform the public and save money and energy.
In the past year, cities including Baton Rouge, Branson and Kansas City, Mo., and Lyndhurst, Wayne and Ringwood, N.J., have adopted the technology, officials in those municipalities say.
Rick Bergholz, owner of TAPCO, a Wisconsin-based company that manufactures and sells the environmentally friendly traffic controls, says solar-powered light "sales have been exploding."
"They've been around since their inception 10 years ago, but it took years to perfect the product and to get approval," Bergholz says. TAPCO's website lists Forth Worth, Tucson and Richfield Township in Ohio among other solar signal clients.